Unverified Voracity Breaks Super Important News

Bring your flaming knives, kid. I bring forth this earth-shattering news: Michigan's going to have a male twirler next year. His name's Nathan Maygar and he's matriculating this fall after an intensive career with the Saline Twirlettes. I'm pretty sure he's the tall one in this picture.

Also, the male one. The Twirlettes' web page notes Maygar will be the first male twirler in a while; hopefully he goes on a retreat with the guy who shows up at homecoming every year with, like, knives and flaming batons and stuff. There he will be called "grasshopper" and learn the ancient secrets of entertaining homecoming crowds.

We used to win these? Wolverine Historian brings you the 1990 Ohio State game:

Gary Moeller, a center with his entire name written on his jersey, and what sounds like be Dick Vermeil doing color.

Okay, I don't get it. I just don't get why anyone thinks the new clock rules are going to signficantly affect the game. Here's Mark Richt:

"Seven years ago, I would have been thrilled about it," Richt said. "My ambition was to play as fast as we could possibly play and run the no-huddle and get to the line of scrimmage as fast as possible and get the ball snapped in a hurry and run as many plays as possible. We were not allowed to do that.

"In my opinion, the officials in this league were more deliberate than in any league I had been. The SEC, to me, was grinding it to a halt. Now, all of a sudden, you can play as fast as you want to play."

I've seen countless references to this; only Bret Bielema dismissed the clock rules as not particularly significant.

Why does anyone think the clock rules are going to be some radical change? Under the previous rule you had to wait until the referee blew his whistle and signaled the ball ready for play before you could snap the ball. Under the current rule... you have to wait until the referee blows his whistle and signals the ball ready for play before you can snap the ball. There is no difference in how fast you can get plays off. The only difference is that you might have 28 or 24 or 21 seconds when the play is whistled ready instead of 25. Am I crazy here?

Update:Ron Zook: ""And you better be ready to run plays. No doubt, offenses that play at a quicker pace will have an advantage." WTF?

Two days after ESPN ran a stinging Outside The Lines feature highlighting the recent rash of off-field problems with the Penn State football program, some housecleaning has apparently begun in Happy Valley.

Sources close to the team report to FightOnState.com that during a squad meeting Tuesday, head coach Joe Paterno announced defensive tackles Chris Baker and Phillip Taylor had been dismissed earlier in the day. According to the sources, Paterno said the dismissals were permanent.

Baker was talented and prone to beating people up in mass melees -- the only player to get an assault conviction for the infamous posse incident -- and Taylor was a participant in Penn State's football's second mass beating spree. Both were part-time starters last year, but Penn State still returns Ollie Ogbu, Jared Odrick, and Abe Koroma at the position and should be fine. RUTS, now a part of Black Shoe Diaries, is peeved.

None of this means that I believe the staff will be unsuccessful. What it DOES mean is that WVU wasn't doing "more with less" than the rest of the Big East - they were doing what they should have with more talent. Luckily, Michigan generally has excellent talent levels. If that is maintained - and it appears that's not a problem - then we should have continued success.

There is a listing of four-star recruits acquired by the various Big East teams: WVU has 16(?!) four-star or better players, comparable to Louisville and Pitt and significantly better than the rest of the conference.

I'm not sure I agree with Chitownblue's police work here. This was significantly higher than my tally when I tackled Rodriguez's WVU recruiting; I came up with 12 four star or better recruits, eight of those in the past two classes. Rodriguez obviously got no use from the 2008 class, and the only player from 2007 to see significant time was Noel Devine. The four guys from previous years all bombed out. Net effect: Rodriguez actually got to use one four-star or better player during his entire tenure at West Virginia. Also, West Virginia was a good Big East team even when Virginia Tech, Miami, and Boston College were around -- a commenter points out that the Big East's recruiting looks a bit less grim when those teams are considered.

WVU obviously had better talent than the rest of the conference at a couple of key positions named "wherever Pat White is" and "wherever Steve Slaton is," but the recruiting and NFL draft record doesn't indicate that WVU had better top-to-bottom talent. This was the Big East, so he wasn't exactly doing more with "less" but he was doing more with "about the same." At Michigan, he will have to do more with "more, except against Ohio State and maybe one other team a year." This is a situation I feel okay about.

I dont think this new change will effect fast paced offenses at all. Where I think it will come into play is when a grind-it0out type of offense wants to milk the clock, or a teams wants to sit on a lead. This plays right into Tressel ball, and that makes me, well.... ill.

I met Nathan this summer. My aunt, who is friends with his family, introduced me to him, since I'm an MMB alum. Nice guy, and apparently a fantastic twirler:
"Nathan won silver and bronze medals at 2006 National Baton Twirling Association World Championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands. He was also selected as the top male twirler in the United States." [source]
Not exactly a lightweight.

It's easy to snicker about a male twirler--but seriously, wait until you see this kid's skills. He was the best part of his high school's half-time show. Give him credit for being true to himself and following his passion. Maybe think of him as the Holly Mangold of twirling????

I think I remember reading that the refs would "rush" to place the ball after a play, and I had the impression reading that this would happen faster than before. I'm just a gum shoe, so some one else will have to do the sleuthing here...

Here is what Lloyd had to say (http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080729/SPORTS06/807290...) about the new clock rule and why it is an advantage to spread teams.
"I think another thing that really helps offenses across the country in college football this year has been a very significant rule change and they’re going to a 40-second clock which means that in the old rule, it took 12 to 14 seconds from the time a runner was down for the ball to be spotted. Now, that ball is going to be spotted much quicker and offensively, those spread teams are going to be over the ball and ready to snap the football. It will put tremendous pressure on defenses and so I think that’s going to be something to really watch as the season goes along.”

Brian - admittedly, some of the higher rated players WVU got didn't pan out (Gwaltney, a 5-star from Rivals, springs to mind), but I figured that since every team has attrition, it would be fair to say that Pitt's and Louisville's recruits didn't all pan out either.
In the end, I was merely pointing out that, in the Big East in the post Miami/Va Tech era, fielding a team staffed with 2 and 3 star players does not quite mean that you're playing with inferior talent, as many claim he was.

I believe Brian is mistaken about the facts in his comments about the 40-second-clock, although his conclusion may still be correct.

New NCAA Rule 2-4:
"A dead ball is ready for play when:
a. With the 40-second play clock running, an official places the ball at an inbounds mark or between the inbounds marks and steps away to his position.
b. With the play clock set at 25 seconds, the referee sounds his whistle and either signals to start the game clock or signals that the ball is ready for play"

What this means is that the referee will not have to blow his whistle before the snap, if it is a 40-second clock situation. Instead, it is ready to be snapped as soon as the umpire backs up to his position near the linebackers.

I do agree with Brian's conclusion that it won't have much effect on the pace of play at all. If a team tries to go to a "quick snap" strategy, you will almost certainly find the umpire loafing around before setting the ball down in order to give the defense time to set up. Just a hunch, though.

Your attempt at humor is not funny. I can only imagine how proud your high school in the back woods of Tennessee is. Is your real name Bubba? Let me guess...Ford F-150 pickup truck and you have a gun rack? Sooooooo proud you are a wolverine fan. You are ignorant and a fool.

Nathan was selected as the top male twirler in the United States? Wow, the other guy must have been crushed.
No, just kidding, considering that's more than I've accomplished in my lifetime I have no room to talk.
@Ontario:
Henne is still around- i got an email from him a few weeks ago. Last I knew he was busy with Freshman Orientation and is probably home for the rest of the summer. I'd expect a lot of the old crew to start coming out of hiding as we get closer to the season. Also, if you really, really miss the old Haloscan there are always dick jokes galore over at WLA.

@ontarioblue
still around but been out of town. also, the lack of recruiting news is boring.
one update, pretty unlikely Sam Montgomery will go blue. Recent interview on rivals said he likes USC x 2, N.C, UCLA, blah blah, but no M.

Anyone notice what happened with DE Devon Kennard (name right?)? Not that we have any chance with him, but he used to have high interest according to Rivals in USC and I think ASU, but now everything is medium. Don't get me wrong; he would be a huge pickup, but keep dreaming.

Jenkins visited UM and said he really liked it, something to that effect. He mentioned the training facilities specifically. I don't have access to Rivals, but someone copied the article on his visit(s) and that was the jist of it. The kid has like 20 offers though, and his UM visit was part of a road trip that included MSU and ND. I think he's going on a SoCal trip next or something. I don't have much hope for him to be honest.

Magyar is Hungarian for Hungarian. That is, if you're Hungarian, you're a "Magyar." Zoltan is also a Hungarian first name (though he was born in Romania but doesn't mean he is w/o Hungarian blood). Hungarians are not known for their athletic prowess save water polo and porn but I'm thinking a kicker and twirler who have reached the pinnacle of their professions can only help to change that perception.

Saw this on an old article from Rivals or Scout.
1. QB Patrick White, West Virginia – Most schools liked White’s potential as an athlete. West Virginia was the only one willing to give him a shot at playing quarterback. Smart move, Mounties. White left Alabama for Morgantown determined to remain behind center, while proving his detractors wrong. In three years, he’s established himself as one of the best quarterbacks to ever play in the Big East, rushing for 3,506 yards and 39 touchdowns, and throwing for 4,207 yards and 35 more scores. A gamebreaker outside the pocket and an improving passer, White has one more season of eligibility left to pile up the individual honors and get West Virginia back to another BCS bowl game.
Then: **
Now: *****
OOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

jb,
Every ** "athelete" that major schools want to play safety does not become Pat White. Most become career backups. Argument by anecdote ignores other, overwhelming thruths. Can Feagin become good? Obviously, yes. But he's not Pat White by virtue of no other school wanting him to play QB.

Jesus, there's a lengthy thread on the Scout boards asking if Michigan could start the season 6-0. Man, that board is going to meltdown if we lose our first game to Utah. Rich Rod has said in a million different ways that this season will be a difficult and trying, and many fans aren't paying attention. And then we'll have to deal with their frustration throughout the year even though this is supposed to be a transition year. Argh...